Homily for the Fifth Sunday Evening of Great Lent (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Fifth Sunday Evening of Great Lent 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

(Delivered in 1929)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

In the work of repentance, my dear ones, we must distinguish two moments. One of them is the turning of the sinner to God with supplication as to a physician: “Heal, O Lord, my soul, for I have sinned against You.” This supplication was present both in the Prodigal Son and in our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt, whom we glorify this week. This moment of the sinner’s turning is characterized by the fact that the sinner, in turning with supplication to God, enters into a secret covenant with Him. Such a covenant was made both by the Prodigal Son and by Mary of Egypt.

But all our life proceeds through repentance, and through it the original beauty of countenance is restored to a man, and from here again there is a path either to sin or to God. The “imaginary soul” strives to displace everything holy and real. Even after conversion, a question arises for a person: how to live? — and a struggle begins between the “imaginary soul” and the “true soul.” Every life is characterized by struggle. If there is no struggle, there is no life. And we, my dear ones, are all inclined to return to the former path. Just as a cancerous tumor strives to fill the whole organism, so the soul infected by sin strives to displace the true soul, and the struggle begins.

Homily for the Fourth Sunday Evening of Great Lent (St. Sergius Mechev)

 

Homily for the Fourth Sunday Evening of Great Lent 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

(Delivered in 1929)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

I told you, my dear ones, that a penitent truly enters into repentance only when he sees that his soul, created according to the Image of God and after His likeness, bears within itself death and corruption. Thus the holy ascetics, who truly struggled against the death of their soul and indeed went from earth to heaven, in this podvig (ascetic struggle) imposed punishments upon themselves as an aid. This happened with them naturally, and they did this in order to cleanse their soul already in this life. Venerable John of the Ladder says that the penitent is an inventor of punishments for himself. You all know well that in bodily illnesses medicine applies difficult means: operations or certain medicines, or the sick person is deprived of all food for a long time, even drink is forbidden. Thus a man is constrained in illness, and by this, little by little, health is restored. And if there were no regimen, the person would not recover, as medicine says. So the holy saints — “madmen” according to the world — voluntarily imposed upon themselves the greatest labors. And so I would like, my dear ones, to present a series of such examples from the lives of the holy saints. These were strong people, and when they sinned, they brought true repentance. And for us, small people, their example can give very much.

Homily One for the Fourth Saturday Evening of Great Lent (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily One for the Fourth Saturday Evening of Great Lent 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

(Delivered in 1929)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

On this present day, according to the Lenten Triodion, the commemoration of our Venerable father John of the Ladder is appointed, and according to the Menaion — the commemoration of our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt. Thus two commemorations are combined today: the remembrance of the teacher of repentance and of a great sinner who became a great righteous one. We, my dear ones, repent poorly because we do not attend to ourselves, according to the words of John of the Ladder, but all our gaze is directed outward. Venerable John of the Ladder says that even in the Old Testament there was a commandment of attention to oneself. And now, in our time, this lack of attention to ourselves reaches the highest degree. All our gaze is turned outward, and this is, of course, aided by all events, as well as by difficult conditions. Yet the Kingdom of God is within us. As long as Venerable Mary of Egypt was in great sins, and her soul was turned outward, of course there could be no conversion. But when she turned her attention inward, to her soul — she felt sin.

Holy Hieromartyr Hypatios of Gangra in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Our Venerable Father Hypatios was born in Cilicia and was the Bishop of Gangra. He was present at the First Ecumenical Synod in Nicea (325) and was renowned by all for his pious life and miracle-working. The Emperor Constantius ordered that a likeness of Hypatius be made during the Saint’s lifetime. The emperor kept the likeness in his palace as a weapon against all adverse powers. Once, upon returning from Constantinople, Hypatios was attacked in a narrow gorge by Novatian heretics and was thrown from the road into the mud. At that moment a woman from that group struck him on the head with a stone, and thus the Saint died. Immediately the woman went insane and took that same stone and struck herself with it. When they took her to the grave of Saint Hypatios, he interceded before God on her behalf. She was healed by the greatly compassionate soul of Hypatios, and lived the remainder of her life in repentance and prayer. Saint Hypatius was martyred in the year 326. 

A great wonderworker was Saint Hypatios, one of the God-bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod, together with Saint Athanasios, Saint Spyridon, Saint Nicholas, Saint Alexander. This means that the Saint had a special illumination in his heart, so as both to proclaim the truth against the heretic Arius and all the offshoots of his demonic heresy — the truth concerning Jesus Christ as the incarnate God — and to become a pure channel of God for the performance of wondrous signs for the sake of his fellow human beings in need. And this is because, of course, no one can see the truth about Christ without the illumination of God — “no one can confess Jesus as God without the light of the Holy Spirit,” the Apostle Paul will say — and no one can acquire the gift of wonderworking without having a pure heart through which the Almighty God acts in him and in the world.

Prologue in Sermons: March 31

The Happiness of Children Is Not in the Wealth Their Parents Leave Them

March 31

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Parents are most often pursued by the thought: “What will my children be left with after me?” This thought is, in a sense, a good one, for who, indeed, if not parents, ought to care for the future happiness of their children? But the same thought becomes sinful and harmful when it oversteps its proper bounds. And for many, it crosses those bounds often. How many people we see who begin to save money — at first without any special attachment to it — for the sake of providing for their children, but then this thrift turns into greed, and a person, without noticing it, becomes passionately attached to money, becomes miserly, and money — nothing but money — fills his entire life. And then there is no longer any concern for Christian upbringing: neither the fear of God is instilled in the children, nor love for God. And how does all this end? Children who are not raised in the law of God, for the most part, plunge at a very young age into worldly pleasures; and when the father or mother dies and the money so greedily amassed for them falls into their hands, they are utterly ruined by it.

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of the Holy and Great Fast - The Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of the Holy and Great Fast 

The Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt 

On Vainglory and Anger

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

“What do you want Me to do for you?” And they said to Him: “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory” (Mark 10:36–37)

Beloved faithful,

If you have listened with attention and reverence to today’s reading of the Holy Gospel, besides other holy teachings that flow from the words of the Savior, you also heard of the request of the two Apostles, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. See what they asked: “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we shall ask of You.” And He said to them: “What do you want Me to do for you?” And they said: “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory” (Mark 10:35–37).

Do you see, my brethren, how the temptation of vainglory dared to approach even the disciples of the Lord? This is not at all surprising, for the devil, even while still in Paradise, tempted our forefathers Adam and Eve with the temptation of pride and vainglory. For hear what the serpent says to Eve: “No, you will not die! But God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4–5).

The devil and his angels were cast out of heaven also because of the sin of pride and vainglory, for they thought to become like their Creator, who brought them from non-being into being. See what the divine Scripture says about this: “You who said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven and above the stars of the mighty God I will set my throne! On the holy mountain I will place my dwelling, in the farthest parts of the north. I will ascend above the clouds and will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13–14). Do you see, brethren, that the sin of pride and vainglory was the cause of the fall of Satan and of the angels who were of one mind with him?

Homily for the Sixth Monday of Great Lent - On Tithing (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Sixth Monday of Great Lent 

On Tithing 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

Our evening service has just concluded, at which we heard passages from the Book of Genesis, which are read during the Holy Forty Days, so that people may recall the creation of the universe and the beginning of our history, at a time when we are preparing for the feast of the re-creation of our universe — the feast of Holy Pascha of the Lord.

At this time, the Proverbs are also read, which show us how we ought to live in the universe, what the norms of a proper Christian life are. Today, the passage from Genesis and from the Book of Proverbs turned out to be interconnected. This is not by chance, but by the deep providence of God, manifested in the wisdom of the authors of the Church’s hymns.

You noticed that the first passage from Genesis speaks of how the righteous Jacob turned to his two wives, Rachel and Leah, asking what they thought about leaving their father. Jacob had been forced to flee from his own brother Esau, because he had deceived him, and to go to the land of Haran. On the way, he fell asleep and saw in a dream a ladder reaching up to heaven, upon which the angels of God were ascending and descending. At the top of this ladder stood God.

Venerable John of the Ladder, the Saint of Great Lent

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Today the memory of our Venerable Father John of the Ladder is celebrated, in addition to the Fourth Sunday of the Fast, which is also a day dedicated to him.

That is, we celebrate an ascetical writer who could be characterized as the Saint of Great Lent, since his book, The Ladder, constitutes the principal reading of this period in our monasteries, as well as for many Christians in the world. And this means that an ascetical text, although written primarily for monks, nevertheless remains something in which every believer who truly thirsts for genuine evangelical nourishment may immerse himself, wherever it can be applied.

We must not forget that monasticism, for our Church, constitutes — and must constitute — the purest expression of a consistent Christian life. And from this perspective, it serves as a guide for every Christian.

Prologue in Sermons: March 30

 

Alms Return to Those Who Give Them

March 30

(A word about the maiden Mononia, how Saint Makarios saved her, though she had been unmerciful.)*

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Lord says: “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). What does this mean?

“This means that with earthly, perishable, and fleeting wealth, one can nevertheless, by using it properly, acquire for oneself friends — the poor, the needy, and in general those requiring help and assistance — here on earth; and they can obtain for us eternal dwellings in heaven, since such use of wealth is a virtue, for which there will follow a reward in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Commentary of Bishop Michael on verse 9 of chapter 16 of Luke, p. 474).

And Saint John Chrysostom says: “He who distributes wealth to the poor uses it for the benefit of his soul” (Homily on Avarice). The same truth is confirmed by examples.